IMHO APRS will eventually meet the same fate as 2 meter repeaters and
autopatch. There was a time when phone calls made up a large amount of
repeater traffic. Right now I would guess repeater traffic of ANY kind
is about 90% off of what we had in the Balt-DC area in the mid 1980s.
Already I can pay an extra fee and Verizon will let me use the GPS
embedded in my phones to do APRS like tracking.
See http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/chaperone/index.jsp. The
main uses of APRS will then be applications where a cell phone just
won't work (aircraft, balloons, middle of nowhere) and as an emergency
fallback. For some reason we have also been crippled by outdated
hardware. A mapping GPS/Radio/TNC combo is available to marine, FRS, and
GMRS users but not to hams. Perhaps no manufacturers see APRS lasting
long enough to be worth investing in?
73
Joe N3HGB
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